WATCH: Rachel Maddow Explains Why Trump’s Lead In New York Is So HUGE (VIDEO)

If you have been looking at the polls for the New York Republican presidential primary, you may have noticed that Donald Trump has what could be quite accurately called a commanding lead over his rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Real Clear Politics puts Trump’s lead at 30.3 points over the second place Kasich, 53.1 percent to 22.8 percent. Ted Cruz languishes in last, with the support of only 18.1 percent of New York Republicans, no doubt in large part due to his remark from several months ago about “New York values.”

OK, you expect Trump to do a little better in New York than in some places since he lives there. But why does he poll a whopping 15 points better in New York than he does nationally? Rachel Maddow thinks she knows the answer. It’s because New York Republicans are crazy. Oh yeah, there’s the old belief that northeastern Republicans represent the sane part of the GOP, except that a lot of those sane Republicans, like former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee, long ago left the Republican party, leaving mostly crazy behind.

Remember a guy named Carl Paladino? He was the Republican candidate for Governor of New York in 2010. After upsetting one of those “sane” Republicans, Rick Lazio, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Paladino went on to be crushed by Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the general election. Paladino is now a Trump supporter, and according to Rachel, is a prime example of why Trump holds an enormous lead in the state.

Maddow documents the many mistakes of Carl Paladino and all of the negative things that were revealed about him during the primary campaign in 2010, such as the fact that he liked to send pornographic videos and racist jokes to his friends. But, she observes, even though voters knew all of those things about Paladino, New York Republicans picked him, in a closed primary, over Rick Lazio.

Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign is, in many respects, the 2010 campaign of Carl Paladino writ large. The racism is there. So is the sexism. And so is the wild popularity among New York Republican voters.

Here’s how Rachel explains Trump’s New York numbers, in the context of the man who is now one of his biggest supporters in the state, Carl Paladino:

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Wes Williams is a lifelong political junkie, stuck in the red end of blue Delaware, where he lives near the beaches with his wife of 34 years and three cats. While politics of all sorts are his passion, he is particularly interested in issues involving labor, education, and the justice system. Follow Wes on Twitter at @WesWilliams_AI or on his Facebook page, LeftOfLiberal.